Baltimore riots

A war of words has broken out in Baltimore between Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake and State’s Attorney Marilyn Mosby. Mosby wants to blame Rawlings-Blake for the rioting that followed Freddie Gray’s death. The mayor has ripped Mosby for rushing to judgment on the six police officers she unsuccessfully prosecuted. Both have good cases. The animosity between the two came to the fore after the New York Times Magazine published a mostly »

Jermaine Schofield was gunned down in Baltimore on Sunday, one of three murder victims in the city that day. Today, Schofield’s family held a vigil for him. During the vigil, a gunman fired at attendees. Five were hit. Thankfully, all are expected to survive. These events are not an aberration. Baltimore has descended into chaos since, in the aftermath of Freddy Gray’s death, the city failed to back its police »

The Baltimore Sun reports that in the year since the death of Freddy Gray, 271 sworn members have left Baltimore’s police department. Only 86 have been hired. The department currently has 284 vacant positions in a force of around 2,300. It’s not difficult to understand the mass resignations (about 3 every 4 days). Gray’s death was followed by riots in which police officers were told to stand down in the »

Almost exactly one year after Baltimore broke out in rioting, voters had to decide who the city’s Democratic nominee for mayor will be. Considering the overwhelming advantage Democrats possess in Baltimore, this decision is tantamount to electing a mayor. The big question was whether Democrats would turn their back on the ugly past (which, whether they realize it or not, has been brought to them by Democrats). Things got off »

The Baltimore prosecutors bringing criminal charges against the officers involved in the death of Freddy Gray won an important victory today. The trial judge ruled that Officer William G. Porter, who is awaiting retrial, will have to testify against colleagues who also are charged in the Gray matter. Porter had argued that the Fifth Amendment gives him the right not to testify, inasmuch as he is still in legal jeopardy »

Here’s a thought experiment. Imagine that a surviving member of a team that killed more than a dozen people in San Bernardino is brought to trial in San Bernardino. Imagine that outside the courthouse, angry protesters are demonstrating and that their chants can be heard in the very courtroom where the trial is occurring. Finally, assume (as seems to be the case) that this was a terrorist attack, and that »

The trial of the first of the first of six Baltimore officers charged in the arrest and death of Freddie Gray began today in Baltimore with jury selection. Officer William G. Porter, 26, faces charges of manslaughter, second-degree assault, misconduct in office, and reckless endangerment because he allegedly did not get medical help for Gray when he complained of injuries after his arrest. None of the 75 potential jurors in »

Stephanie Rawlings-Blake, the mayor of Baltimore, has announced that she will not seek re-election. The beleaguered mayor had been building a campaign infrastructure and holding fundraisers. Why the about face? Rawlings-Blake explained, “it was a very difficult decision, but I knew I needed to spend time, the remaining 15 months of my term, focused on the city’s future and not my own.” How selfless. Baltimore’s future is parlous, thanks in »

Marilyn Mosby, Baltimore city’s state’s attorney, has countered charges that she’s biased against the police by saying that she comes from “five generations” of cops. But a closer look at her family history raises more questions about her view of the police than it answers. Chuck Ross of the Daily Caller reports that Mosby’s mother, Linda Thompson, was forced to retire from the Boston police force in 2008 after violating »

The Baltimore Sun says it has obtained a copy of the autopsy report in the Freddie Gray case. The Sun hasn’t published the report but presents a summary of it here. If the Sun’s description is accurate, the report will likely hurt, perhaps fatally, the prosecution’s case at least with respect to its most serious charges. Before getting into specifics, let me observe that, as described by the Sun, the »

Heather Mac Donald has an excellent piece in the Wall Street Journal called “Explaining Away the New Crime Wave.” It’s a response to the left’s frantic efforts to avoid the obvious inference that the spike in crime many cities are experiencing results in part from the growing reluctance of cops to engage in proactive policing. Mac Donald’s article is worth reading in full, if you can penetrate the Journal’s pay »

The May arrest and crime numbers from Baltimore are in. They show that the police arrested fewer people than in any month for at least three years, despite a surge in homicides and shootings across the city. According to the Baltimore Sun, arrests declined citywide by 43 percent from April to May. They dropped by more than half in the West Baltimore neighborhood where Freddie Gray was arrested. Several neighborhoods »

Marilyn Mosby, the prosecutor in the Freddie Gray case, continues to make news for all the wrong reasons. First, her motion for a gag order in the case was dismissed because she filed it in the wrong court. The Baltimore Sun reports: Judge Charles J. Peters ruled the motion lacked standing in an actual proceeding, as it was filed by Baltimore State’s Attorney Marilyn Mosby’s office in Circuit Court on »

Scott’s post, “The Unmaking of a Mayor,” directs our attention to the stunning exchange between Fox News Channel’s Leland Vittert and Baltimore Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake during her weekly press conference. Vittert was pressing Rawlings-Blake on whether the wave of shootings that has plagued Baltimore is related to the sharp decline in arrests. Rawlings-Blake looked like a deer in the headlights. I almost wanted to find her a “safe space” and »

He isn’t Stephanie Rawlings-Blake. But then, Rawlings-Blake, the current mayor of Baltimore, isn’t running for President. O’Malley, the former Baltimore mayor is, and he’s not profiting from reports about how badly the city is doing. As the Washington Post puts it, “Baltimore’s blight has O’Malley on the defensive.” The Post provides a useful look at O’Malley’s time as mayor. As you would expect from an ambitious liberal, O’Malley was an »

City life has not improved in Baltimore since the indictment of six Baltimore police officers. Some residents have gone on a murder spree targeting other residents. Innocent bystanders have the reasonable fear of getting caught in the crossfire. Drudge has compiled stories »

Baltimore City state’s attorney Marilyn Mosby is prosecuting the six Baltimore police officers charged in connection with the death of Freddie Gray. She seems to bring a certain animus to the task. I questioned Mosby’s professional behavior in the post “Mosby so far,” commenting on Mosby’s press conference announcing the charges she had brought. Evidence of Mosby’s animus may also be evident in two tweets written by third parties that »